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Continuing
LEHRE UNO VVEHRE
MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK
THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLy-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY
Vol. XIX January, 1948 No.1
CONTENTS
Pale
Foreword. W. Arndt _______ ______________ __ ___ _________ . __ __ _____________ ._. ____ .. _._ 1
The Word Principle in Martin Luther. Carl Walter Berner .... _ .. __ .. _._ - 13
The Pictish Church, a Victim of Garbled History. F. R. Webber 28
The Most Important Social Problem of New Testament
Times - Slavery. E. C. Matte _ .. _ ...... __ .... _ ......... _ _ ..... _ .... __ .. _ ....... __ . 34
The Nassau Pericopcs _. __ . ____ . ___ ._____ ._ _ __ . __ . ___ .. _ .. _. ____ . __ .. ___ ._. __ ._ .. _ ... _ . .... _ 44
Miscellanea ._. _______ ....... _._ .. _ ..__ _ ______ __ . _______ ._ . __ .. _ .. ______ .... ____ ... ___ . __ .' .. '_.". __ ._._.' 55
Theological Observer ___ . . _ .. _. ___ .__ _____ .... __ __ ._ .......... _. __ __ . __ ._ .. __ . ___ ._ ... _ .... __ _ _ 60
Book Review .. __ . __ . ______ . _____ .. ___ . ___ .. ____ __ ___ __ ___ . ___ ... _ ....... _ ... __ _ 'i7
Eln Prediger muss nicht alIeln wei-
den, also dass er die Schafe unter-
weise, wie sic re<:hte Christen sollen
sein, sondem auch daneben den Woel-
fen wehTen, dass sle die Schafe nicht
angrel!cn und mit falscher Lehre ver-
tuehren und JTrtum elnfuehren.
Lv.thn
Es 1st kein Ding, das die Leute
mehr bci der K1rche behaelt denn
die gute Predlgt. - Apologle, A n . 24
If the trumpet g ive an uncertain
sound, who shall p repare hlm8elf to
the battle? -1 eOf'. 14:8
P ublished by the
Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States
CONCORDIA PUBUSBING BOUSE, St Louis 18, Mo.
PUl/DD [N '11'. B. A.
The Most Important Social Problem
of New Testament Times - Slavery
A Conference Essay
By E. C. MALTE
The student of the Greek New Testament will readily
note the frequent occurrence of the word ()OVAO<;, "slave," and
EAEU{}EQ0<;, "free man." The second word in Paul's Letter to
the Romans is ()OVAO<;: "Paul, slave of Jesus Christ." Paul
uses the word more than twenty times in his Letters. He says
(Phil. 2: 7) that Christ took upon Himself the nature of a slave,
f!oQqJl)V ()OUAOU. Paul speaks of himself and all fellow Chris-
tians as ()OVAOL XQLO'-LOV, "slaves of Christ," and urges us not
to become ()OVAOL &'v{}Qro:rr:rov, "slaves of men." His letters to
the Ephesians and Colossians contain explicit rules for the
conduct of slaves and masters. Living in a society in which
it is estimated that more than half of the population belonged
to the slave class, it is little wonder that Paul often uses this
word and its antonym, free man.
It is regrettable that most English translations of the New
Testament have weakened the full force of the word ()ov/,o;
and have rendered it "servant." Goodspeed * calls attention
to the difference between "slave" and "servant" whe~ he says:
"To reduce such terms to 'servant,' as the King James gen-
erally does, is to forget the fact that the New Testament Greek
has two or three other words for 'servant,' that is, an em-
ployed person, who could be discharged or resign; ()u:bwvo<;
and U:rr:'I'\QEL'I'\<; certainly have that meaning, and :rr:ai:<; may also
be rendered 'servant,' though it, too, may mean 'slave.'''
If we keep the full meaning of this word (\OVAO;, which
occurs 121 times in the New Testament, clearly before us, how
much more significant the words of our Savior become which
He addressed to His disciples in John 15: 12-15: "This is My
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I com-
* Goodspeed, Edgar H., Problems of New Testament Translation,
University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1945), p.139.
[34]
SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 35
mand you. No longer do I call you bOVAO'Ur; [slaves, not merely
servants], for the OOVAOr; [slave] does not know what his
master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that
I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."
To tone down the word OOVAOr; here and translate "servant"
weakens the force of the contrast which the Savior evidently
intended.
Or again, if we take the words of the elder brother in
Luke 15: 29 and translate them as Weymouth does in his
translation, namely, "all these years I have been slaving for
you," the real spirit and attitude of the elder brother becomes
evident. He looked upon his work these many years as
slavery. The word "serve" has such high uses in common
speech today that it does not accurately convey the relation
of this elder brother to the father and to his work. Work
for him on his father's estate was regarded as conscript toil.
It was a labor without love and without respect and esteem
for his father. His harsh and bitter feeling toward the brother
who had returned and who was now being welcomed by the
father is clear when we permit his word Loo11 LoaavLa ELY]
bOlJAEVW am to say in English what they mean.
In the following we propose to ascertain what light, if
any, Greek and Latin sources, and especially the papyrus
documents unearthed in recent decades, shed on what has
been called "the most important social problem of New Tes-
tament times." The duties and rights of slaves and free men,
the price paid for slaves in the market, the manner in which
slaves might be set free, the price paid for their freedom-
these and many other questions connected with the slavery
problem are understood in the light furnished by many Greek
and Latin references and the papyrus documents.
In his Theologisches W oerterbuch zum N euen Testament
Kittel t says:
Das Kennzeichen des griechischen Selbstbewusstseins ist
der Freiheitsgedanke. Der Grieche findet seine persoenliche
Wuerde darin, dass er frei ist. Damit ist die Abgrenzung des
griechischen Selbstbewusstseins gegenueber allem voIIzogen,
was unter den Begriff OO'UAEVEL'V faellt; denn da, wo es zum
bOlJ/cEVELV kommt, ist ja die menschliche Autonomie beseitigt
und ein fremder Wille dem eigenen uebergeordnet. Der bOvAOr;
t Kittel, Gerhard, Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testa-
ment, Stuttgart. Verlag von W. Kohlhammer (1933-1939).
36 SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
ist einer, der nicht nur keine Moeglichkeit besitzt, sich einer
ihm aufgetragenen Arbeit zu entziehen, sondern auch nicht
einmal das Recht hat, sich fuer irgend etwas zu entscheiden,
der vielmehr nur das zu tun hat, was ein anderer getan haben
will, und das zu unterlassen, was ein anderer unterlassen
sehen wilL 1m ()OVAO£ hat darum das freie Griechentum von
jeher seinen eigenen Antitypus gefunden, und im ()OVAEVELV
hat es das gesehen, was sein Wesen in sein Gegenteil ver-
kehren wuerde. Fuer einen Dienst, der dem Dienst des Skla-
ven seiner inneren oder seiner aeusseren Struktur nach auch
nur von ferne aehnlich ist, hat darum der Grieche nur Ab-
lehnung und Verachtung.
"You know perfectly what it is to be a slave," Herodotus
reports some Greeks as saying to a Persian official who was
urging them to submit to Xerxes. "Freedom you Persians
have never tried, to know how sweet it is. If you had, you
would urge us to fight ;for it not only with our spears, but
even with hatchets."
The Athenians with but rare exceptions regarded slavery
as natural and justifiable. In his treatment of this subject
Aristotle characterizes in heartless and legal fashion the slave
as being merely E[1'ljJ'UXov ° Qyavov, "a breathing machine, or
tool, a piece of animated property." He asserts that some
men are so inferior that they may be regarded as slaves by
nature. Aristotle defends the enslavement of Orientals and
Scythians as natural on the ground that the Orientals had
intelligence without courage and the Scythians had courage
without intelligence. Aristotle's view was generally accepted
by Greek law and public opinion. A slave could be bought
and sold at pleasure, could be given in pledge or taken in
distraint just like any other commodity or property. A slave's
family relationships were not recognized by law; he could not
own property, and any money he might earn legally belonged
not to him but to his master.
Plato in his Republic never spoke against slavery; in his
old age he actually advocated it. Still there are signs that
he was troubled by it. He says: "A slave is an embarrassing
possession" and suggests that slaves should be well treated
and not abused or insulted.
Whence came these slaves? A few were born in servi-
tude of slave parents; the majority were captives of war.
Slavery arises from two main causes, namely, want and war.
SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 37
Privation and famine compel a man, a family, or a tribe, to
accept terms of service and maintenance from others to which
under normal conditions they would never submit. War,
a yet more potent cause, brings in its train foreign captives,
who are forced to enter a condition of subjection to the will
of their conquerors. War also carries in its wake desolation
of home and of all means of subsistence. Whole populations
are rendered destitute and flee for protection and maintenance
to some friendly but alien race, and thus voluntarily enter
into the position of slaves as a refuge from famine and death.
Roman history tells us that Domitian built the famous
Arch of Titus in A. D. 81 to commemorate his predecessor's
sack of Jerusalem and humiliation of the Jews. Many of
these arches of triumph were erected in Rome and other parts
of the empire. Except for a few that served as city gates,
these arches had no utilitarian purpose whatever. One sup-
position is that these arches of triumph represented the yoke
of submission under which captives were forced to march
after being defeated.
Among the Romans it was taken for granted that much
of the labor of everyday life, including agriculture and the
arts and crafts, should be performed by slaves. The Romans
used the Greek island of Delos as one convenient center for
a slave trade so big that some contemporary accounts put
the number of slaves sold under the hammer there in a single
day as high as 10,000.
The wars of Rome during her great period of expansion
had filled the city and the country dictricts with slaves, most
of them members of races of a high civilization. In a rich
family there were men and women skilled in every task from
the most menial to the most expert. There was no need for
a Roman to go outside his household for any craftsman.
Slaves were secretaries, copyists, accountants, carpenters,
metalworkers, jewelers, weavers, plumbers, cooks, bakers,
managers of country estates as well as rural laborers, painters,
artists, surgeons, tutors, physicians, teachers.
According to Roman law a slave could be dealt with as
any other piece of property; in theory and according to the
custom of the ancients his life had been forfeited by defeat,
and his enslavement was a merciful commutation of his death.
They could be Hogged or branded at their master's will. In
38 SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
a criminal trial their evidence was given under torture, and
strict limits were set to their acquisition of property.
The country slaves had hard and heavy work. The Roman
was a hard and stern man; he did not spare himself, so why,
he argued, should he spare his slaves? They were to be
cared for as long as they were useful to him; but then they
were to be thrown aside. Cato believed that "worn-out cattle,
sick sheep, broken tools, old and sick slaves, and other use-
less things should be sold." He also gave instructions as to
the food and clothing that should be given to the farm slave.
In addition to his regular allowance he might have a few of
the olives that drop of themselves and a small quantity of
sour wine. "As for clothes, give out a tunic and a cloak once
in two years. When you give a tunic or cloak, take back the
old ones to make quilts. Once in two years should shoes
be given."
The country slave had very little opportunity of gaining
his freedom. He could run away, but he was sure to be
caught; and when he was returned to his master, he was
cruelly flogged and the letter F for fugitivus was branded on
his forehead. The country slave seldom saw his owner; and
the rewards of the overseer, or manager, of the farm or estate
depended upon squeezing every possible profit from the
chattels entrusted to his lash. The wages of the slave on the
great estates were as much food and clothing as would enable
him to toil from sunrise to sunset every day barring oc-
casional holidays until senility. If he complained or dis-
obeyed, he worked with chains about his ankles and spent
the night in an ergastulum, a subterranean dungeon.
In the city the lot of the slave was mitigated by humaniz-
ing contacts with his master and by the hope of some day
gaining his freedom. The town slave had lighter duties and,
as a rule, lived under better conditions. Sometimes his master
would give one of his city slaves his freedom as a reward for
long and faithful service. Or a slave might buy his freedom
out of his savings, for it was possible for a town slave to earn
and save a little money (peculium). He sometimes received
gifts from his master or his master's friends, or if he was
skilled in any occupation, he could occasionally find oppor-
tunities to practice it for his own benefit. In such ways he
could slowly and laboriously save enough, but at the best
SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 39
it was a long process, for the more valuable the slave, the
greater was the price he must pay for his freedom.
In the imperial palace and in other great houses a very
large number of slaves were employed. Augustus and Livia
lived far more simply than any other imperial family, yet
Livia had 600 slaves attached to her household. Such large
numbers were necessary because the duties were so divided.
Among the slaves Livia had a keeper of purple robes, of her
morning dresses, of her imperial robes, of her state robes, of
her overcoats; she had slaves for folding the clothes and
a hairdresser, a keeper of perfumery, eight goldsmiths and
many other jewelers, a keeper of her imperial shoes and of
her sandals; the regulator for the hot and cold water for
her bath and a keeper of her chair. There was also a gov-
erness for her favorite pet dog and a keeper of the family
portraits.
There was, of course, much cruelty to slaves in many
Roman households, and the absolute power of a master, un-
restrained by principle of kindly feeling, was an unmitigated
curse till it was limited by the humane legislation of the sec-
ond century. Peter's reference (1 Pet. 2: 18-25) to the cruel-
ties and indignities often inflicted by the masters on their
slaves would indicate that these were not isolated cases. But
there must have been many houses, like that of the younger
Pliny, where the slaves were treated, in Seneca's phrase,
"as humble friends and real members of the family."
A slave might be bought for less than a hundred dollars
in the open market, whereas another of superior quality might
be sold for several thousand. High-grade dancing girls and
mistresses for the wealthy Roman houses brought excellent
prices. At auction men and women alike, stripped and sold
naked, were handled and examined like animals. Strict laws
protected the purchaser's interests with prescribed penalties
for misrepresentation and fraud.
Slaves could be manumitted, that is, set free, and in such
an event the slave paid a certain sum to his master as price
for his liberty. He could not, however, claim the right to
buy his freedom, as the purchase money was in the eye of
the law his master's property. Since the slave could not enter
into a contract recognized by law, manumission often took
the form of a fictitious sale by the owner to some god; reg-
40 SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
isters of these sales and manumissions to some god were pre-
served in the templ~s and many specimens have been found
at Delphi and in many of the papyrus documents in Egypt.
The custom of manumission as practiced by the Greeks
and Romans throws much light on many passages in Paul's
letters. Among the various ways in which the manumission
of a slave could take place by ancient law we find the solemn
rite of fictitious purchase of the slave by some divinity. The
owner comes with the slave to the temple, sells him there to
the god, and receives the purchase money from the temple
treasury. The slave is now the property of the god; not,
however, a slave of the temple, but a protege of the god.
Against all the world, especially his former master, he is
a completely free man. The god will protect him now as
a free man.
As an example of such manumission under the protection
of some god, we quote in translation a papyrus document from
Oxyrhynchus of the year 86 A. D.
Chaeremon to the agoranomus, greeting. Grant freedom
to Euphrosyne, a slave, aged about thirty-five years, born in
her owner's house of the slave Demetrous. She is being set
at liberty under the sanction of Zeus, Earth and Sun, by ran-
som of her mistress Aloine, daughter of Common, son of
Dionysius, of Oxyrhynchus, under the wardship of Common,
the son of Aloine's deceased brother Dioscorus. The price
paid is 10 drachmae of coined silver and ten talents, 3,000
drachmae of copper. Farewell. (Signatures.)
The following is one of many nursing contracts found in
the papyri. Especially in time of famine, children of the poor,
usually girls, were thrown on a village dung heap. Often
they were recovered by a person who would have them reared
as slaves.
The 12th year of Tiberius Caesar Augustus. Pachon 26th.
In the village of Oxyrhynchus of the Thebaid. Taseus,
daughter of Peteeus, Persian of the Epigone, with her husband
Petsiris, son of Horus, Persian of the Epigone, who is also her
guardian and surety for the fulfillment of all the terms of
this contract, both residents of the village of Tanais in the
middle toparchy, enter into an agreement with Paapes, son
of Philas, in the street, that they have received from him on
the 17th of the present month Pachon, the female child to
whom he has given the name Thermoutharion, whom he picked
up from a dung heap to rear as a slave. Taseus is to rear
and suckle it with her own milk, and is to care for it for
SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 41
a term of 2 years from the present 17th day of Pachon, in
return for the agreement made by Paapes to provide food
and clothing and all other expenses incurred for the child,
paying therefor 60 drachmae a year. Taseus further acknowl-
edges that she together with her husband Petsiris, who is also
her surety, has received 60 dr. in advance for the first year
in cash from his house. At the end of this year Paapes will
pay at once 60 drachmae in silver for the second year, and
further he agrees to provide 2 cotylae of oil per month for
the 2 years. Accordingly Taseus will of necessity provide
every assistance and care for the child as is incumbent on
her. She will not cohabit with her husband so as not to harm
the milk, nor will she become pregnant, nor suckle any other
child nor. .. And she will hand over the child to Paapes well
nourished, as is incumbent upon her. If the child suffers any
fatality which is plainly accidental Taseus will be held blame-
less, and if Paapes picks up another child to put in her care,
she shall nurse it for the remaining period on the aforesaid
terms; but if she does not wish to do so, she shall repay
whatever she appears to owe for the term of nursing which
still remains. If she violates the contract made in these terms,
she shall repay to Paapes what she has received from him
in silver, with an addition of 50% and 200 dr. as compensation
for damages and penalty and an equal sum to the fiscus.
Paapes shall have the right of exaction from the aforesaid
parties and from whichever one he chooses and from all their
property. This agreement is valid. I, Taseus, daughter of
Peteeus, have concluded the agreement. I shall nourish the
infant Thermoutharion for 2 years. I have received 60 dr.
in silver for its support, and I shall perform all the provisions
of the aforesaid contract. I, Petsiris, son of Horus, have sub-
scribed to this document as guardian of my wife, and I am
her surety for the fulfillment of the above conditions. Herac-
lides, son of Theon, wrote on their behalf as they are un-
lettered. Paapes, son of Philas, consents to the above con-
tract. . .. Honey-colored, round-faced, with a scar on the
right knee.
The following papyrus document is typical of the many
contracts for the sale of a slave that have been found in Egypt.
To the agoranomi of . . . from Sarapion, adopted son of
Zoilus, son of Apion. I swear by the Emperor Caesar Titus
Aelius Hadrianus Antonius Augustus Pius that I have sold
to Agathodaemon, freedman of Heraclides and Sarapion, also
called Dorion, both sons of Sarapion, belonging to the same
city, the house-born slave Didymus, belonging to me and who
came into my possession by inheritance from my aforesaid
father by adoption, who was my paternal uncle and is now
deceased. This slave is free of blemish save for epilepsy and
leprosy, and I further swear that he is mine and is subject
42 SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
to no mortgage nor have any other any right of alienation in
any way, and I have the price of 1,300 dr. in silver, and
guarantee the transaction. May it be well with me if I swear
truly and the opposite if falsely. (Signatures.)
Do these recently discovered papyrus documents help us
to understand the institution of slavery in the first century of
the Christian era? We believe they do. Document upon
document, discovered and translated and edited by scholars
in Germany, England, and the United States, would seem
to prove the correctness of Deissmann's contention, namely:
"The stupendous force of dogmatic tradition and the fact that
the word 'slave' with its satellites has been translated 'serv-
ant,' to the total effacement of its ancient significance in our
Bibles, have brought it about that one of the most original
and at the same time most popular appraisals of the work of
Christ by Paul has been, I think, only vaguely understood
among us. I refer to the metaphor of our redemption by
Christ from the slavery of sin, the law, idols - a metaphor
influenced by the customs and technical formulae of sacred
manumissions in antiquity."
St. Paul is alluding to the custom referred to in these
papyrus records when he speaks again and again of our being
made free by Christ. Before we came to faith in Christ, all
of us were ooiJ},QL. This oouAda in which Paul finds all men
by nature is a slavery of uflaQtLa (Rom. 6: 6), a slavery of un-
cleanness, &.%u-&aQa(u (Rom. 6: 19), a slavery of diverse lusts,
6:rtL-&U[!LUL (Titus 3: 3); a slavery unto the elements of the
world, atoxda TOU %oa[!ou (Gal. 4: 3, 9). By nature all of us
are so completely under the control and complete subjection
of these masters, that apart from Christ and without Christ
it is impossible for us to serve any other master.
But thanks be to Christ, who by His death has freed us,
paid the ransom price for us, and has delivered us from the
slavery of sin. Paul describes this manumission, this eman-
cipation, with some of the very terms that were used in Roman
and Greek law for the manumission of slaves. Gal. 3: 13:
X(H(}TO~ f]flii~ E~llYoQumov 6% T~~ %a'taQu~ TOU vOflOU, "Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the Law." Now we are no
longer in bOUAdu, slavery, but we have received uLo-&EaLu, adop-
tion (Gal. 4: 5). Paul's admonition in Gal. 5: 1 takes on added
meaning. Til EAEU-&EQLtt f]flii~ XQLaTo~ TJAEu-&EQO)aEv· aT1j%ETE oilv
%a1. fl~ naALv ~uy0 ()ouAda~ EvEXE